Goldilocks

January 1, 1989
Corruption, betrayal, the Mafia and ties that go back to childhood provide the underpinnings of this gloomy but well-written entry from veteran Coburn ( Off Duty ; The Babysitter ). Louise Baker, child of the slums, has worked her way to the top of a Mafia loan operation, meanwhile having married the mentally unstable scion of an old New England family and established herself in a small, affluent town near her birthplace, Lawrence, Mass. She still keeps in touch with, and helps, friends from her youth, and she calls on one of them, lawyer Barney Cole, to find employment for a young man whom she had briefly taken as a lover but now wants to get rid of. He is Henry Witlo (the Goldilocks of the title), a psychotic Vietnam War veteran who now proceeds to terrorize a recently widowed client of Cole's. This subplot moves in tandem with the main plot, chronicling the downfall of Louise and the network of people who owe her favors. The feds are after her, and when they start putting pressure on her associatesCole, his lawyer mistress, the police captain who kills for herit all ends in death and betrayal, with only Cole standing firm to his principles.

August 3, 1992
In yet another regrettable case of celebrity-turned-children's-book-author, DeLuise tinkers with a perfectly good fairy tale and comes up with a wise-cracking, offensive remake. Brimming with treacly one-liners and pseudo-sassy asides (``Let me put it this way--she was a girl who just wouldn't take no for an answer''), this travesty finds the bear family dining on soup instead of porridge-- pasta e fagioli , no less, as Mama Bear is ``a Julia Childs sic fan.'' Goldilocks is an insufferable prig who, in a made-for-TV ending, manages to worm her way back into the Bears' affections (after contritely doing her homework as punishment, of course) and returns to visit them and ``have a good laugh about the interesting way they had met.'' DeLuise should stick with Candid Camera. Santoro has done better work than is on view here--and surely will again. His illustrations fairly wag their tails in an effort to please, but their saccharine, commercial execution is better suited to greeting cards. Any buyer lured by the author's celebrity status--and undoubtedly disappointed with this purchase--can take heart, though, as the book has one redeeming feature: a dynamite recipe for corn muffins is included. Ages 3-6.